The Value Of A Pass Rush

Finally, finally, finally the Bucs after way too many long years have figured out that a pass rush is a good thing.

But a team should never be satisfied. Simply put, you cannot have too many pass rushers.

Now this is not some flashback where Joe says, “You should have traded/drafted” (so and so). It’s just an example.

Regular readers probably remember how Joe bellyached for the Bucs to trade a second-round pick for pass rusher/outside linebacker Dee Ford last offseason. Instead, former Bucs great and current 49ers general manager John Lynch jumped at the chance.

Ford, after being hurt late in the season, came back for yesterday’s impressive 49ers physical win over the Vikings in the division round of the playoffs. NFL NextGen stats documented how important Ford was to the 49ers’ defense.

Dee Ford was explosive off the line as a pass rusher in his first game since Week 14 (3 pressures on 17 pass rushes).

As impressive as the 49ers’ defensive front is this year, San Francisco had only one more sack than the Bucs. It helps to have the NFL’s sack leader (Shaq Barrett) and to see Jason Pierre-Paul rise from a hospital bed to turn the Bucs into a pass-rushing machine.

The point of this post is (especially with JPP (31) if he returns) the Bucs cannot stand pat and be content with the pass rush. If there is another guy out there who can rush the passer, draft or free agency, go get him!

After all, JPP (if he returns), is no spring chicken. And who knows about Shaq’s future?

32 Responses to “The Value Of A Pass Rush”

As we can see by the team’s that all made the playoffs, the secret to winning in today’s NFL is to run the ball, play good defense, and DON’T TURN THE BALL OVER.
And a huge part of playing good defense is that good, steady pass rush.
Injuries always happen to key players, so like John Lynch said in Frisco, “You can’t have too many pass rushers.”

Alanbucsfan … At THIS point, the Bucs have NO pass rush & thus a meh defense. Lest Bucs’ fans forget, we no longer ‘own’ JPP, Suh, Barrett or Nassib … the majority of the PRODUCERS on our defensive front. Those 4 FREE AGENTS had 36.5 of our 47 sacks (78%) and 78 of our 116 QB Hits (67%). Yet right now we have no more claim on them than any of the other 31 NFL teams (OK, except for the tag).

Bucs got a ton of production ‘on the cheap’ last year from those 4 defenders, but now the chickens have come home to roost. Mess with what we had and there are NO GUARANTEES we’ll get even close to the same production from our defensive front this year. All it takes is one Swaggy Baker & it MIGHT collapse like a house of cards.

Totally agree that you can never have enough pass rushers. Along the same lines though, you can never have enough quality DTs, or enough quality LBs, or DBs or WRs, or RBs, or big uglies on the OLine. It’s all a rather moot point since this little thingie called SALARY CAP prevents teams from accumulating talent just based on money.

TEAM BUILDING requires astute CHOICES, and our Bucs’ management has some very hard CHOICES to make over these next 4 months (at least). HOPEFULLY they START by re-signing JPP, Suh, Barrett AND Nassib. Not hard to notice that ALL FOUR of those FAs were ‘imported’ and that’s a risky way to build a TEAM. Much prefer to draft at least 1 DE or DT with 1 of our top picks … every year IMO … and develop our own. Same with OLinemen BTW.

BTW Joe, our awesome #3 Bucs’ offense would’ve gotten humbled by EITHER the 49ers defense or the Vikings defense that I saw yesterday. BOTH defenses were stout & showed a great pass rush, but the 49ers RUSHED the ball better (as in 47 rushes as opposed to 19 passes in that game … wow). Relatively few wasted plays; they just kept chipping away. And it worked against a Vikings defense that was 13th against the run in YARDAGE, but #3 in terms of TDs allowed.

Oh gosh, forgot to mention that the losing QB passed for more yards than the winning QB (172 vs 131 passing yards). Surely the Vikings should’ve won, because we all know that passing yards are king and that the NFL is a passing league nowadays. (OK, sorry, couldn’t resist).

Yesterdays “Wild Card” Playoffs was a perfect example of the “Any given Sunday,” axiom. “Lamar Who? Ryan Who?” These games are won and lost by teams, You don’t have to throw for 450 yards or 5000+ yards a season. Average players who don’t turn the ball over and can control the penalties while maintaining a dependable running game and consistent defense can go to the playoffs with an eye on the prize. Not rocket science.

The Titans are in the AFC championship with a QB who has thrown for maybe 300 yds in the playoffs and was considered a bust. You have to think with Winston and Mariota going 1/2….the Bucs brass sees the Titans succeeding with a journeyman QB while we continue to lose. They have to see 5,000 yards aren’t remotely meaningful when it comes winning.

I fully expect Licht to trade down, acquire additional picks, and totally screw it up. I’m not talking about the screw up where he picks a Lb at the 5 spot and doesn’t pick a De. I’m talking about trading down to acquire more picks, then drafting a small/slow corner AND THEN using the acquired picks to trade back up for a kicker when a guy like Ngakoue is still on the board. Thats the Licht that I expect to see this draft.

Look at the niners draft history. Top picks used to build the trenches of that d line. Build from the front and work your way to the back! Fix the trenches, fix the Bucs!

Bobby M … When you look at the box score for the Titans-Ravens game, there’s no doubt that the Ravens won the game (sound familiar?). And yet, they didn’t.

Ravens made 29 first downs to only 15 for the Titans (passing 1st downs were really one-sided … 18 Ravens; 5 Titans). Ravens passed 59 times (for 345 yards) against 29 rushes (for 185 yards), as opposed to Titans passing 15 times (for 83 yards) and rushing 37 times (for 217 times). Raven won the TOP (32 to 28 mins) and total plays (92 to 53).

Ravens won that game in virtually every meaningful stat category except TWO: TURNOVERS (Ravens had 3 TOs to 0 TOs for the Titans) and Red Zone efficiency (Ravens went 1-for-4 while the Titans went 3-for-3 … and that was huge).

The Titans’ DEFENSE won that game, just like it did against the Patriots, and their offense played solid COMPLIMENTARY FOOTBALL. They feasted on TURNOVERS … just like they did against us when we lost 27-23 after committing FOUR turnovers in that game. Interestingly, had we won that game, Titans would’ve gone 8-8 on the season … and no playoffs. But sure, turnovers are inconsequential. Until they’re not.

DR-
Think of the DLine as a unit- take 1 out and the unit is not as effective. As a group, they are pretty damn good. It will probably cost $50 million to resign them (Barrett, Suh, JPP, Nassib).
Now if sacrifices have to be made, do you want to break up the DLine? For Jameis? For one of the OLinemen which needs upgrade as it is?
Whether you liked The Beatles or not, they made more money as solo artists, but the music was never as good as when they were a unit.

I don’t get the posters who say turnovers don’t mean anything to a game. Riiight… 121 points scored off of Winston turnovers!!! That means something! Just look at the stat of the teams in the top in turnover ratio.

The Bucs defense had 28 takeaways last year. 28!!! That’s actually pretty good and top tier. But the offense (cough cough) gave it right back. 28 is top tier but the Bucs were way towards the bottom with -13 turnover ratio.

You can’t win games by giving the ball away. Blame the coaches. Blame the receivers/te’s. Blame the o line. Blame the lack of run game. Blame the defense. Blame the refs. Blame the kicking game. Blame whoever! 30 ints is not acceptable and he should be held accountable and not be given a pass.

@Defense….agree. I’ve been saying this since Winston’s days in college and continue to say it, you will not win in the NFL turning the ball over. The remedy for Winston is a top five o-line, running game and defense. Less is more with Winston. I promise you we will win more when he is throwing less. Teams have figured Winston out, they dare us to throw banking on the odds that he’ll give you two or three turnovers and with that comes an 80…90…95% of winning. Teams will take those odds all day. The only teams we get away with beating were division dumpster teams. That’s worthless data as far as i’m concerned.

The core problem to all of our issues is Licht. He has no vision, he built this team completely backwards. The “weapons for winstons” was nothing more then a huge highlighter for Winston’s flaws. You loaded up the passing game when all the stats say he plays worse the more he drops back. People bash Lovie but I do believe he had the right vision when he stated “they should have stuck to the plan”…..the plan was exactly what you see with the Titans, run game and defense. That’s the old school way Lovie envisioned but Licht genuinely believes Winston is tom Brady and is completely intoxicated on his kool aid.

Excellent observations Bobby & I agree. The humorous(?) part of this whole thing is that by bringing in BA’s ‘Bombs Away’ passing-first attack the Bucs dug the hole even deeper for Jameis IMO. Given a BALANCED ATTACK he could (probably) win, but as we’ve already seen using a passing-first attack gets him in trouble.

I do believe that IF Jameis stays here another year that he can cut down on turnovers … just not enough to get us to the promised land. If it hadn’t been for the 28 takeaways that our much-maligned defense generated, Bucs would never have even made it to 7-9. Like you said, even with those 28 takeaways, we ended up with a MINUS 13 Turnover Differential. THAT’S the kiss of death in today’s NFL.

Love the emphasis on defense and run game, but, at the end of the day, you still need playmakers to make impact plays that produce rapid change of possessions and scoring plays on offense. The Titans don’t have a running game. They have a PLAYMAKER in Derrick Henry. The Bucs do t have one of those in the back field.

The Bucs have a couple of fantastic playmakers at WR, but they still need a QB that can get them the ball in a position to make a play. That’s not going to be a game managing QB. It doesn’t mean that it has to be Winston, but you can’t plug Kirk Cousins or Andy Dalton into this current roster and expect our “playmakers” to thrive. JW is a PLAYMAKER, too. He just needs to stop making the all too frequent okays for the defense.

As for our defense, I don’t see any way to keep the band together AND pay the QB. But, as big a JW fan as I am, we MUST keep the band together on the D-line. Continue to add pieces as depth and let the young secondary continue to grow.

Kobe: yes true but his int% has been above 3% 3 out of his 5 years. And you say 16 annual ints when he annually started 14 games… again, more than 1 int per game. Do you want to count any of his 18 fumbles lost, too?

You may be ok with that but I am not! Hard to win the turnover margin when this happens. Once again Kobe, 121 points scored off of Winston turnovers last year.

You dudes who keep saying Jameis supporters say that turnovers aren’t important to losses can you please tell me who any where has ever said that???? Are you so moronic to believe that anyone believes that load of crap????? I love how you guys make mess up just to make yourselves look smarter and informed. We all know you have to reduce those turnovers but you people act like it’s the only thing and that he’s the ONLY reason we lose but yet when we win you say it’s a team thing. Believe it or not but no matter how many turnovers the defense is paid millions of dollars to stop an offense from scoring. How many times have we seen our offense score and the defense turns right around and olays up a scoring drive right after??? Over and over!!! The defense had been just as much at fault as Jameis. You say he hasn’t improved but the offense scored more than any other year, redzone scoring was huge, scored more tds, deep passing exploded and he was the biggest reason for it. So please get over yourselves. Yes he MUST reduce his turnovers first and foremost. So if he does that just as Carson Palmer did how much more explosive do you think this offense will be with a running game???? You guys who want Jameis gone be careful what you ask for, Ryan Tannehill sucked in Miami but look at him now in Tennessee. Tampa Bay still had the Doug Williams curse.

I’ve been preaching all along, keep defense intact. Defense wins games not QB’s. Titans & Ravens proved that. Like they say stats are for losers. Think about it Licht & BA. Most might not agree but I think Fitz & maybe even RG would have gotten us to the playoffs with our defense.

The game was changed dramatically and successfully to move from a run oriented pound and grind and play defense league to a forward pass league. I love offense and these rules have achieved their desired result…top the bleeding in the TV ratings and indeed make them grow once again.

Here is where I made my mistake in analysis…perhaps some of you followed me down the rabbit hole.

During the regular season these rules made a big difference…in the post season however it seems “old school” football returns to win the day.

So YEAH I’m with everybody looking for another RB…a big bruiser to complement ROJO..or vice versa. They would split carries depending on opponent and game situation. NOT to simply help JW or whomever ends up under center but to build a team for the playoffs.

Mad Max has turned me on to the Memphis State RB and many here including me like Najee Harris. We need a big bruiser Derrick Henry/Marshawn Lynch a back that can go beast mode and an excellent change of pace from ROJO..or the other way around. Obviously if we found someone with Henry’s talent he gets the #1 role and ROJO becomes the change of pace.